A $2,200 Ar­cam Solo sound­bar, has been voted the worst of 26 sound­bars tested by con­sumer group Choice.

While the $2,499 Yamaha YSP 5600BSW was voted the best sound­bar, it was the $599 Cambridge Au­dio TV 5 that came out on top up against some of it’s more ex­pen­sive ri­vals.

The Ar­cam of­fer­ing was so bad that it only man­aged to score 21% by the Choice Stereo Lis­ten­ing panel mean­while the Multi-Chan­nel lis­ten­ing panel only gave it a score of 23%, it was also beaten by the Bauhn sound­bar sold at Aldi and the Soniq sound bar sold at JB Hi Fi. In com­par­i­son, the $599 Cambridge Au­dio TV 5 scored 84% for stereo lis­ten­ing and 78% for mul­ti­chan­nel lis­ten­ing.

The Ar­cam Solo was so bad ac­cord­ing to the Choice ex­perts that it was beaten by an $80 Bauhn sound­bar sold by Aldi. That scored 28% for stereo lis­ten­ing and 23% for mul­ti­chan­nel lis­ten­ing.

The Ar­cam Solo which is sold at spe­cial­ist deal­ers is dis­trib­uted by Ad­vanced Au­dio the same Com­pany that sells the over­priced KEF gear in Aus­tralia.

When it came to 24bit sound­bars the Bluesound Pulse with a sub came out on top. The Denon Heos 24bit sound­bar was not tested by Choice.

The new Sonos Play­base which is sell­ing for $999 is cur­rently on back or­der. It rated 72% for Stereo lis­ten­ing and 82% for Mul­ti­chan­nel lis­ten­ing. Another big win­ner from the shootout was the $399 Sam­sung HW K360, it scored 67% for stereo lis­ten­ing and 60% for mul­ti­chan­nel lis­ten­ing.

Ad­vanced Au­dio have been asked to com­ment.

Phil Sawyer the CEO of Syn­ergy Au­dio the dis­trib­u­tor of the Cambridge Au­dio a UK de­signed sound­bar said”We are de­lighted that TV5 has come out on top up against more ex­pen­sive ri­vals. Con­sid­er­ing the per­for­mance, price and the fact it is made by a lead­ing UK Hi Fi Com­pany, the Cambridge Au­dio of­fer­ing is an ex­cel­lent choice for any­one look­ing for a high per­for­mance sound­bar”.